Popular stories shared among agents, business leaders and our loyal readership are on AI, acquisitions and a mega deal between Microsoft and Nuance. Didn’t have a chance to read through them all? Don’t worry, we’ve done the leg work for you and selected our top five popular articles from last week. Enjoy!
Microsoft’s Nuance Acquisition to Deliver New Cloud and AI Capabilities
Microsoft announced Monday it will acquire AI and speech technology firm Nuance Communications for about $16B in cash, in aim to build its cloud strategy for healthcare.
The deal comes as a result of a previous collaboration of both companies in 2019, when they partnered to automate clinical administrative work such as documentation. Both will gain from a boom in telehealth services with medical consultations shifting online due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella said: “Nuance provides the AI layer at the healthcare point of delivery. AI is technology’s most important priority, and healthcare is its most urgent application.”
Predictive and Real-time Analytics: CX Today Expert Round Table
Real-time and predictive analytics can be a powerful tool in delivering exceptional customer experience. By making use of these types of analytics, contact centre agents are able to smooth out any pain points of the customer journey while simultaneously providing an empathetic experience and reducing wait time.
Experts from seven companies share their thoughts on whether real-time and predictive analytics are a valuable addition to contact centres and what human agents can learn from these analytics.
Avaya Reveals 44% of UK Workers Consider WFH a Driver in Happiness
Up to 57% percent of UK workers have felt happier over the past year as a result of working from home, according to a new study commissioned by Avaya to take the emotional pulse of the nation as we move beyond 2020.
The Life and Work Beyond 2020 study, conducted by research firm Davies Hickman Partners, polled 10,000 consumers and workers in 11 countries to discover the impacts of COVID-19 on consumer wellbeing and values as the world embraces a new world of work.
Steve Joyner, Managing Director UK&I, Avaya, said: “Findings from our Life and Work Beyond 2020 study highlight the need for employers to provide clear guidance on what their future of work might look like, which is understandable and necessary after this turbulent and uncertain year. We all know that a happy employee is a productive one and technology where it’s needed to support an employee to do their tasks well, is critical.”
Employees to Return to Buildings, say Salesforce
Salesforce have announced it will start bringing employees back to its offices on a voluntary basis beginning in May. As well as its San Francisco headquarters, the company will also open its offices in Palo Alto and Irvine, California, with more locations expected to reopen in the coming months.
Salesforce will extend the option for employees to continue remote working at least the end of 2021. Depending on COVID case rates, Salesforce will gradually transition to its second ‘phased reopening’ stage, where office capacity will increase to 75%, the business said.
Guide to AI-Driven Knowledge Management
The bigger the contact centre’s remit, the bigger the knowledge needed. With extensive product ranges, specialised niche customers, and endless market requirements — not to mention complex partner relationships like B2B2C — not only is there more data to stay on top of, there are other issues too. Such as how fast it can become outdated, as products update continually, and the knowledge generation (e.g. product feature design) moves further and further away from those selling and supporting to the customer.
Maintaining an up-to-date knowledge base is the first challenge, and Steve Nattress, Product Director at Enghouse Interactive points out that for many contact centres as recently as a decade ago this consisted of printed product files for each call handler.
